1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connector that connects an endoscope and an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus, and an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When cleaning or disinfecting the interior of an endoscope tube using a cleaning/disinfecting apparatus, the operator connects a cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connection section provided at one end of an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connector to a fluid supply port of the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus first. Furthermore, the operator connects a discharge section provided at another end of the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connector to a pipe sleeve of the endoscope tube such as an air/water supply tube and a suction tube provided inside the endoscope, formed on an outer surface of the endoscope.
As a result, a fluid such as cleaning liquid, disinfecting liquid, rinsing water, gas is supplied from the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus into the endoscope tube through the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connector and an opening of the pipe sleeve and the interior of the endoscope tube is thereby cleaned/disinfected.
Here, to prevent a fluid from leaking from the discharge section connected to the pipe sleeve, the discharge section has been provided with a leak prevention member such as an O-ring. However, in recent years, a configuration has been well known which provides no leak prevention member at the discharge section and intentionally causes a small amount of fluid to leak from a gap between the pipe sleeve and the discharge section so that the pipe sleeve and the periphery of the pipe sleeve may be cleaned/disinfected using the leaked fluid during a cleaning/disinfecting process by the cleaning/disinfecting apparatus.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-195400 discloses a technique providing an opening/closing valve that freely comes into contact with an opening edge of a pipe sleeve in a discharge section of an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus connector connected to the pipe sleeve of an endoscope and normally remains in non-contact with the opening edge by means of an urging force of a spring. When a fluid is supplied into the discharge section at a predetermined flow rate or higher, the opening/closing valve moves in the direction of the pipe sleeve against the urging force of the spring, thereby watertightly and airtightly contacts the opening edge of the pipe sleeve and when the fluid is supplied into the discharge section at a flow rate less than the predetermined flow rate, the opening/closing valve moves apart from the pipe sleeve by means of the urging force of the spring and is kept in non-contact with the opening edge of the pipe sleeve.